Fourteen countries including Britain, Canada, France and others have condemned the Israeli security cabinet’s approval of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, prompting strong criticism from Tel Aviv.

On Sunday, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that authorities had greenlit the settlements, saying the move was aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“On the ground, we are blocking the establishment of a Palestinian terror state,” said Smotrich, a vocal proponent of settlement expansion and a settler himself.

Subsequently, fourteen countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Canada, issued a statement late on Wednesday urging Israel to reverse its decision.

“We call on Israel to reverse this decision, as well as the expansion of settlements,” said a joint statement released by Britain, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Denmark, France, Italy, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain.

Such unilateral actions, they said, “violate international law”, and risk undermining a fragile ceasefire in Gaza in force since October 10.

They also reaffirmed their “unwavering commitment to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace based on the two-state solution … where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side-by-side in peace and security”.

“We recall that such unilateral actions, as part of a wider intensification of the settlement policies in the West Bank, not only violate international law but also risk fuelling instability,” the statement said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar rejected the statement by foreign countries in an X post late on Wednesday, saying the decision aimed to help address security threats faced by Israel.

“Foreign governments will not restrict the right of Jews to live in the Land of Israel, and any such call is morally wrong and discriminatory against Jews,” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said.

“The cabinet decision to establish 11 new settlements and to formalise eight additional settlements is intended, among other things, to help address the security threats Israel is facing.”

Since the start of Israel’s assault in Gaza in October 2023 following Hamas’s attack on Israel, calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state have multiplied, with several countries moving to formally recognise such a state.

Among those countries were some of those that condemned the settlement expansion drive.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Excluding east Jerusalem, which was occupied and annexed by Israel in 1967, more than 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, along with about three million Palestinian residents.

Earlier this month, the United Nations said the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, all of which are illegal under international law, had reached its highest level since at least 2017.

The latest approvals bring to 69 the total number of settlements approved over the past three years by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, one of the most right-wing in Israel’s history.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority has also condemned the latest approvals, accusing Israel of tightening its control over Palestinian land.

It said the approvals were a continuation of “apartheid, settlement, and annexation policies that undermine the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people”.